author profile Some novelists struggle to find a suitable way to define an emotion about which they’re writing, whilst others, such as AMITAV GHOSH, create words of beauty and insight which transport the narrative into the very souls of his readers as ALAN GOLD discovers. flower tears of a Yes, there are novelists who stretch so far for similes and metaphors that they end up with the truly dreadful and notorious creations such as ‘Unable to contain his rage, he burst like a pimple of emotion’. But the language and images which flow from the mind of a novelist with the style, grace, and reflective wisdom of Amitav Ghosh can open hidden rooms in a reader’s mind and enable a new understanding, a path to a wider and profoundly satisfying experience. Here’s how Ghosh touches upon hidden memories in the minds of his characters in language which will resonate with every reader – ‘No matter how hard the times at home may have been, in the ashes of every past there were a few cinders of memory that glowed with warmth …’ . Amitav Ghosh’s latest novel, published this month, is the first part of a trilogy which will delight his legion of avid fans around the world. Sea of Poppies is set in India just prior to the notorious Opium Wars.The epicentre of the novel is an old slaver ship, The Ibis, its crew, and the chaotic journey it takes across the Indian Ocean.The crew, composed of a misbegotten gang of sailors, stowaways, convicts, slaves, coolies and the disaffected, are all bit players in British colonial India at a time when Britannia was pre-eminent, not just ruling the waves, but controlling an empire on which the sun never set. ‘Motley’ is a cliché, but there’s really no other word more suitable to define the cast of characters Ghosh has drawn together on his ship.There’s a penurious rajah, simple villagers from rural India where the poppies and the opium they produce are the major source of income, an evangelical British opium dealer, a half-caste American former slave, and many more. Brought into companionship by the sea and its omnipresent dangers, a group of people, separated as much from their current lives as they are from the lands they left behind, become ship-brothers. 16 goodreading ı JULY 2008